Use test scores to rate teachers? I object!

OK, now we have a full week of blogging and fury, a statement from Randi Weingarten, a resolution for the next DA, and what, four pieces on Edwize?

they couldn’t find experienced educators to fill all their administrator positions, so they are making experience unnecessary

So some nasty ‘centrist democrats‘ (apologies for the links, seemed necessary) go after Leo and the UFT for being opposed to rating teachers based on test scores on principle. And Leo clearly shows that they have ignored his carefully constructed methodological arguments against.

They accused EdWize having principles. Why not take a moment to thank them?

Sure, the effects of teaching are hard to measure, and there are all sorts of quantitative problems with finding them. Lots of methodological objections, many quite powerful.

But we also know that good teaching has little to do with teaching to the test. We’ve developed, through years of arbitration, bickering, grievances, and agreement, a system of evaluating teachers that, kind of, sort of, works. It looks at how the teacher teaches. And it involves people who know teaching (and not so long ago were still teaching a class) talking with people who are doing the teaching. It involves suggestions for improvement. It involves commendations for good work. And on the negative side, involves various warnings.

This value added crap removes that. On principle we should oppose a no-feedback system. On principle we should oppose a system that reduces students and teachers and schools to a single number or group of numbers. Remember? Progress Reports? Quality Reviews? Opposition to abuse of high stakes testing?

(Hmm. The principals and APs should be just as annoyed, if not more. The DoE is making them superfluous, expendable, replaceable. Any empty suit can read numbers from a chart. See, they couldn’t find experienced educators to fill all their administrator positions, so they are making experience unnecessary.)

But I have strayed.

On principle we should oppose a system that reduces students and teachers and schools to a single number or group of numbers

The objections should include:

• methodological (noted abundantly on EdWize)
• principled (in the resolution proposed for the next DA)
• questions of competence (the DoE has bungled each major piece of data it has handled recently)
• theoretical (is raising scores an end in itself; what is the effect on teaching?)
• thorny (if AP’s cheat on tests – see JFK or Susan Wagner – what pressures will our members be under?)

And we should not be embarassed to have principles.